700.643.01
Understanding Addiction: Philosophy, Science, Ethics
Location
East Baltimore
Term
3rd Term
Department
Berman Institute (Bioethics)
Credit(s)
3
Academic Year
2025 - 2026
Instruction Method
In-person
Wednesday, 3:30 - 6:20pm
Auditors Allowed
No
Available to Undergraduate
No
Grading Restriction
Letter Grade or Pass/Fail
Course Instructor(s)
Hanna Pickard
Contact Name
Frequency Schedule
Every Year
Resources
Prerequisite
Enrollment Restriction
Priority enrollment given to MBE students. No undergraduates permitted to enroll.
What is addiction? What explains addiction? What kind of ethical response does addiction require of us—as individuals and as a society?
Employs an inter-disciplinary approach to understand the nature of addiction, drawing on philosophy, addiction science, and the perspectives of people who struggle with addiction. Provides an overview of competing models of addiction and evaluates their theoretical foundations and supporting evidence. Explores the heterogeneity of individual-level decision-making in addiction. Explores the hidden moralism of our collective discourse about addiction. Distinguishes responsibility from blame and offers a novel ethical framework for thinking about individual and societal attitudes toward people with addiction. Provides students with the opportunity for in-depth reflection on philosophical, scientific, societal and ethical issues surrounding addiction, developing analytic and argumentative skills as well as research and presentational skills. Please note: The course requires group work.
Learning Objectives
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
- Explain the theoretical foundations and motivations of different models of addiction and assess the supporting evidence
- Identify the multiple factors that impact individual-level decision-making in addiction
- Distinguish responsibility from blame and apply a responsibility without blame framework to addiction
- Deploy conceptual reasoning skills to address complex issues of moral disagreement
- Display knowledge of the paradigm for understanding addiction developed in the core text for the course What Would You Do Alone in a Cage with Nothing but Cocaine? A Philosophy of Addiction and apply it to ethical, legal and policy issues about addiction
Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:
Methods of Assessment
This course is evaluated as follows:
- 10% Participation
- 40% Quizzes
- 10% Reflection
- 20% Group Work
- 20% Presentation(s)